The present invention generally relates to commercial transport aircraft and more particularly to the use of a common flight deck module in the fabrication of a plurality of differently sized commercial transport aircraft platforms.
Manufacturers of modern commercial transport aircraft typically produce a plurality of differently sized aircraft configurations so that they are able to provide appropriately sized aircraft to meet the needs of their customers. One common approach to vary the capacity of an aircraft is to add segments to the fuselage on either side of the wing. Large changes in capacity, however, necessitate the creation of a new aircraft platform wherein the diameter of the fuselage is changed (i.e., the fuselage of one platform will have a cross-sectional area that is distinct from the cross-sectional area of the fuselage of a different platform). Despite the widespread use of the latter approach, several drawbacks have been noted.
One such drawback concerns the commonality between the aircraft platforms. In view of the differences in the availability of space in each of the platforms, the complexity of the aircraft avionics and the crew capacity, the crew portion of the cabin of an aircraft is typically configured in a manner that is unique to its aircraft platform.
The unique configuration of the crew portion of a cabin, however, is undesirable to the aircraft manufacturer in that each platform must incur costs to develop the crew portion of the cabin, integrate the crew portion of the cabin to the airframe, as well as fabricate and store spare parts that are unique to the design of the crew portion of the cabin. The unique configuration of the crew portion of a cabin is also undesirable to the aircraft customer in that the customer must incur costs to train its staff for each configuration, as well as procure and store spare parts that are unique to each configuration.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a crew module that may be integrated into a plurality of aircraft platforms. A crew module that is common to several aircraft platforms permits the costs for the development and certification of the crew module and its integration into the airframe to be shared over several aircraft platforms. Additionally, the use of a common flight deck module across several platforms substantially reduces the amount of resources that must be dedicated to training and the procurement and storage of spare parts.
In one preferred form, the present invention provides a method for fabricating an aircraft that includes the steps of: providing a flight deck module having an avionics suite with at least one exterior window aperture; generating a build order for an aircraft, the aircraft being selected from a plurality of aircraft platforms, each of the aircraft platforms having a fuselage and a predetermined capacity, wherein each of the fuselages is sized differently and wherein each of the capacities is different and wherein the flight deck module is compatible with each of the plurality of aircraft platforms; fabricating at least a portion of an associated fuselage of the aircraft; and fixedly coupling the flight deck module and the associated fuselage to one another to integrate the flight deck module into the aircraft.
In another preferred form, the present invention provides a commercial transport aircraft that includes a flight deck module having a discrete module structure and at least one exterior window aperture and a fuselage having a discrete fuselage structure with a flight deck aperture configured to receive the flight deck module.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.